Week 11 and 12 ending 2/21/2010

Week 11 & 12 – 2/7 thru 2/21

Super Bowl Sunday drove to Cape Coral to watch the game with John and Jane Crowe , friends and family (group of 10), and they treated us to a great lunch and dinner.  They rented a very nice three bedroom home, pool, and on a great boating canal.  We stayed over night, great time, great company and a great game!

On the way home Monday, stopped and hiked “Four Mile Cove Ecological Preserve” and also leaving the Fort Myers area found a great Kayak launch park adjacent to a Manatee warm water habitat.  Great viewing of the Manatee’s.

 

  Back at the park, signed up for a 4-1/2 hour tour featuring an orange juice processing plant and a sugar cane processing facility.  Sponsored by the Clewiston Chamber of Commerce, the tour was great and our guide did an excellent job, topped off with a good lunch at the Inn.  Got to see mountains of unrefined sugar processed by U.S. Sugar Corporation, and truck loads of oranges processed by Southern Gardens Citrus, a subsidiary of U.S. Sugar.  Tour took us to the fields for a raw taste of sugar cane and hands on view of harvesting.  It really was a fantastic day.  A lot of similarities to dairy processing at both facilities.

 

Rest of the week was pretty low key.  Visit with daughter Lisa in Palm Beach Gardens, meeting her and friend Bill for a tour of the “Lion Country Safari”.  The park was a 1hr drive through with most animals free range, up close to most.  Once done with the drive, a second park offered picnic grounds, water park, and zoo like displays. Able to feed the giraffes.  Was a full entertaining day.

End of week 12, February 22. 2010

Week 9 & 10 Thru 2/7

Week 9 and 10 – 1/24 thru 2/7

Weather continues to be warm, but very windy.  Walking the levy, now seeing lots of Gators out sunning themselves, saw six the first warm day.  Now not just fun to see, but trying to find the “bigger” ones, some in the 15’ range.

Finally got in our first round of golf.  Signed up with our park group going to the Clewiston Municipal Course.  Met group, (24 prox.) there for a 10:30am tee time.  Mostly French Quebec’s, but we got matched up with a very nice couple from New Jersey.  Had lots of fun and really enjoyed their company.  Neither of us played very well, even after both of us hit balls at the range the day before, but we still had fun.   Thursday night we joined our new golf friends, Jim and Sonia, at the Clewiston Inn for a Caribbean Dinner theme, Jerk Chicken and Ox Tail.  Both very good.

Friday took a road trip south to “Big Cypress Indian Reservation”.  Told there is a very nice RV park there.  Park is very nice, no French Canadians, and they did have a really nice site for our size coach.  But after further review, there was no cell phone coverage and the nearest town was 1 hr. away, so decided to stay put.

Saturday, invited another couple we met at the club house for breakfast, Wayne and Joanne, from Minnesota, to join us for a steak dinner cook out at the Elks Club, seeing that we had reactivated our “demit” status before we left home.  Also invited a really friendly Ontario, Canada couple, John and Gail, but they regretted to have to cancel due to another commitment, will do another time.  The steak was probably the best we have ever had.

Bob met a couple of guys in the park that are bikers.  Joined them for a 22 mile ride in some Florida “back country”.  Was a fun ride and nice guys from Ohio.  Found an Eagle nesting along our trail.

Took a road trip over to Naples to connect with Oshkosh friends Shawnee and Wayne Gayhardt, renting a condo for the month of February.  Met for a cocktail and a tour of their place.  Made plans to do a “swamp tour” together down in the Glades.

Weather still pretty unstable, warm, windy, rain storms, etc., but nothing like out east, or back home.  Cancelled golf on Wednesday due to winds and rain.  Another bike trip with the guys, only 20 miles, but the last 10 into a 30mph wind.  Tough enough.  Daughter Lisa and friend Bill are coming tonight, Saturday for steaks at the Elks. Also invited John and Gail from Ontario.

End of week 10, Feb 7